Truth be told, one reason I had not reviewed it was it has been in my car CD player ever since, and I normally put records (CD’s are records) there AFTER I have finished a review.  I flat-out LOVE the Underground Township, and Graham — dreads and all — is just about larger than life.  But then I know a little something about living with more than one spirit inside … Yeah, there’s enough reggae in this big blond white guy to attract the likes of P. J. Herrington, whom I know through Kris Brown and Mr. Brown, to play guitars.  Other official band members (the “senior class” on the record yearbook) include Matt Morris on drums, Wayne Dalchau on bass, Chris Stringer on keys, and Patrick Herzfeld on drums — but there are often horns, and here and there buddies of Graham (like Alejandro and Hayes Carll) who show up to sing or maybe rap on the furniture in time.  The M&M Horns (Margaret Whitt and Meg Kemp, also known for their work in Jabarvy), Nick Warrenchuk (trombone), Mark Wilson (saxes), and Leila Hanley (alto sax and flute) are on this collection of songs.  For the whole schoolfull, get the record!

Because this column is all about SONGS!  “Let It Go” encourages us to “laugh until life makes sense” when things around us threaten to swallow us whole (such as the death of a daughter or a brother).  “Boys and Girls” yearns for a simpler time, “before the false truths were written in stone.”  After all, what we face in real life today is “criminals as politicians,” and “all this pain in so many lives….”  But this record is all about the “Ragamuffin,” Graham’s brother Aaron, and on this powerful song Lloyd Maines lends his considerable skill on pedal steel.  Indeed, the whole record was inspired (Graham tells us) by a band trip to New York City to play a gig with some of his brother’s friends that turned into a month-long tour in the summer of ‘08.

On the other hand, the record is also about Graham’s big loving heart – songs like “Star Blue – Spend All My Time with You” and “Our 1st Night,” tender love songs (okay, I just see some Red Skelton soft shoe on Star Blue).  Another one of my favorites is “Ghost,” one of many songs here where Graham talks about the discord in today’s world and wonders, “why don’t we love one another?”  The big guy with the big heart sings this great song, “Blame,” when you want to blame the mess on just about everybody else, but if you want to let love win the day you just let them blame it on you and get over it.  My decade in Baton Rouge (and eternity in Houston) makes me smile at “From Covington,” even though “sister Melody has got some felonies, thirteen class A, in all,” when the one I know best got busted mostly for walking to the Randall’s after curfew to get a soda.

“Blank Pages” is just Graham and a piano in that sepia-sounding effect singing, “scraping with worn fingertips and broken nails, I scream, ‘the living stay hungry, the dead they are not alone…..”  And so, after you listen to the 15-song set all the way through, you find yourself back at track 1, a rockin’ number, “Watertowers & Windmills,” a song about coming to grips with things you cannot understand when the world seems about to fall totally apart (the water tower is two days shy of running dry, and the old windmill has stiopped singing it’s song….”  And “Sunrise,” a toe-tapping, horn-happy ditty that must have been written on the bus on the way back from New York that ends with the sounds of real live Boys and Girls (and of course the intro to that reggae song).

I have to close out these comments by mentioning, “Personality Disorder,” a tap-dance number reminiscent of Richard Gere in Chicago — tap-dancing through the muck and mire of a world “so unbelievably full of idiotic super-natural-light-hearted wild turkey babble ….”  And I am brought back to Halloween, with Bobby Perkins playing bass wearing a grass skirt and me in my Zoot suit …

And that brings me back to why Ben and I were at Momo’s this Monday — but before that I gotta tell you Ben was the victim last Friday night of a flying skillet he had to catch with his bare left hand and all of a sudden unable to play his scheduled gig at Flipnotics.  So naturally, BettySoo and Mailman Dave came to the rescue, showing up on half an hour’s notice for unsuspecting folks like me who had been at Momo’s for an early set or two.  Oh, Ben did drop by, ostensibly to sing a duet (on a Tom Waits song) with Noelle Hampton and her band — and the guy, for some strange reason, grabbed Noelle’s guitar and painfully but poignantly gave his friends the treat of his version of “White Christmas” before yielding the floor to Will Sexton and Charlie Faye and later Jess Klein (all of whom Noelle graciously lent her stage to during the evening).

The very next night I was back at Flipnotics to catch a set from Margo Valiante after stopping by House Wine to hear some new songs from John and Kristen Nixin.  Wise birds got to Momo’s early on Monday to hear Jess Klein and Randy Weeks swap songs for an hour, whetting the appetite for the main event, one that I have a sense might one day be seen as historic.  Dustin Welch has done the string quartet show before — with violinist Trisha Keefer, bassist Joe Beckham, and cellist Brian Standefer, notably at a show I caught at Lambert’s what seems to be a lifetime ago.  This time though Dustin brought out James Duvall and Eli to record the second of two shows also featuring Phoebe Hunt and sister Savannah Welch — with dad Kevin (plus grandparents and little sister) shooting video and the rest of the family basking in the glow. 

And speaking of family week, last Wednesday I got to see Eleanor Whitmore and hubby Chris Masterson at the Scoot Inn and Vanessa and Jason Lively and full band on Vanessa Lively Day at Momo’s.  Just good stuff.  On the horizon — Christmas Night at Antone’s with Blues Mafia, Shelley King, and Carolyn Wonderland, and next Sunday at Threadgill’s North Lamar for Hank and Shadri Alrich (lunch) and then out to the iguana Grill to catch the beautiful Barbara Nesbitt.  Finally, KUDOS to Jazz Mills for collecting (and organizing into gift baskets) tons of stuff for Christmas presents for Austin’s homeless and hopeless.

Okay — maybe that’s a little too heavy for the twenty-something son of longtime Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kevin Welch (with whom Dustin will be playing a BUNCH of shows next month at Gruene Hall).  But Dustin has never said that HE is the whisky priest (in fact, my pal Seth Woods, who doubles as worship leader at Mosaic, and his band Whiskey Priest are playing at the Carousel on April 13th).  Truth be told, Dustin is more of a prophet — and a storyteller of the highest order.

Witness his wonderful song, “Sparrows,” written to commemorate the lives of so many who came back less than whole from Vietnam (but equally applicable to returning Iraq war veterans).  “.. I’m stumbling down this back street of another town, upset every silo but I have yet to drown, and everywhere I turn expecting slander and scorn, for the life of me I beg to be reborn.  Gotta find somewhere to get out of the rain, this coat don’t keep the cold out anymore, and my heart don’t beat the same as it did before.” 

Maybe it his Native American heritage, maybe it is the mantle laid on five-year-old Dustin by the wonderful songwriter Harlan Howard — or maybe just the natural progression of a skinny little kid who developed his own style of banjo picking as he just naturally absorbed knowledge and energy from the belly of that Nashville songwriting culture.  What we all know about Dustin is that his songs just jump into your gut — with melodies and harmonies and, yes, layers of poetry and prose that most likely Dustin himself has to ponder over and over again as he and we search for the mysteries his music searches out and unveils.

Now, picking just ten of Dustin’s captivating songs for his first collection had to be the hardest job producer Mark Addison has done in quite a while (admittedly, with help from Dustin).  There are just so many good ones.  But here we open with “One False Move” (co-written with Willie Braun of Reckless Kelly), which just drives the ball out of the park — “At first glance, we’re still in the game, ah but there’s the desperate chance that hope just may remain … [but] until we come to see the error of our ways, we’re just one false move away.”  And that wailing guitar from Kyle Ellison and the House Band that also includes Joe Beckham on bass, Trisha Keefer on fiddle, and my favorite bagel maker Joe Humel on drums — plus Drew Smith on rhythm guitar and vocals and the glorious Savannah Welch keeping her brother happy with her positive energy and lovely voice. 

And that’s just the core of Dustin’s ever-expanding band of brothers (and sisters) who jump on stage now and then to join the chorus (that’s Drew who has the “choir”).  Other players on this CD include Mr. Addison himself, Bukka Allen (also the son of a famous songwriter), Brian Standefer, Suzanna Choffel, Jeremy Nail, Dan Dyer, Kacy Crowley, Mick Braun, Carrie Elkin and Susan Howe. 

“What Heartbreak Will Make You Do” (written with Kevin Welch and Claudia Scott) is another rocker but again with depths not noticed by the casual listener — “You keep telling yourself you’ve got it all under control but to me you’re just a long lost child … one of these days the time will come, you will find out that love is real …”  But earlier, the little slip “I’ve got all of the answers if you want ‘em but nobody ever listened to me.”  Gotta love that fiddle!  [Claudia's own version is smokier!  And you should definitely check it out -- both have that Kevin Welch tom-tom beat down at the bottom.]

Then there’s “Don’t Tell ‘Em Nothin’,” written with childhood friend Cary Ann Hearst  (see the pattern — Dustin says he likes to work with others so that his songs have different voices but what seems to be the case is that his friends and mentors act as mirrors to better help him see the vision he has had for his songs).  “Dirty Mind” has help from Sean Locke, while “Whisky Priest,” “Green Badge,” and “Two Horses” all were guided in part by Mark Germino, who will be joining Dustin on May 8th and 9th for two Austin shows.  And “Lower East Side” had help from another childhood pal, Justin Townes Earle, with whom Dustin played in The Swindlers band for years.  The all-out rocker “Empty Parking Lots” was a collaboration with Nail, Choffel, and dad (and who knows who all else?) — duly noted that Dustin gets everyone involved with his music and his life itself, and everyone who works with him gets a blessing.

I ran into Dustin on Tuesday night at the Saxon Pub, and he mentioned in passing that he was playing a set at House Wine with Kelley Mickwee and so after taking in a rare movie Thursday afternoon I headed over for a glass and some music — and found Kevin Welch also sitting in the living room.  Outside folks were prepping the “stage” (that is, the front porch) for an evening with nominees for the Texas Music Awards, so what transpired was an informal work session for Kelley and Kevin’s upcoming tour of Italy.  Afterward I stuck around for a while, stopped by Botticelli’s to check in on Jackie Bristow, and then went over to Lovejoy’s for more of Stretch Dawrson and fellow Mending Heart Gemma Donald (here from Scotland for Old Settler’s).  Then I ran into Dustin again that evening at the Hole in the Wall as we all reveled in the music of Sideshow Tragedy and celebrated Nathan Singleton’s birthday. 

But back to the review.  “Dirty Mind” is another hard-driving song that requires a jug and a jig, while “Whisky Priest” is a stomper that punches you right in the mouth:  “I am a man of faith, I am a child of the crow, and all my bed of angels, well they touch and they go, I get no self-satisfaction from salvation when it’s sold with a 10-digit digital magnetic  bar code ….” 

“Two Horses” I have written about — Dustin has placed their skulls on the back cover of the record — just to let you know that this song tells a lot more about what it is to be in his shoes than you might otherwise realize.  It is tough being able to see so much — how do you handle what you see, how to translate it into something that gets to the person(s) who need to hear but without scaring them off from that truth that might just save them from themselves.  Especially when that someone is you!

Maybe that’s a clue to the mysterious “whisky priest” on the album’s front cover — the layers of jewels and trinkets that keep you from seeing what the eyes of the priest are looking at.  But who knows?  It’s just cool.  And just listen to ”Lower East Side” – a song Lou Reed might endorse though written by two kids from Nashville who ought not know so much about his territory.  Trisha’s fiddle here is a thing of beauty — and the song is a classic.

But Dustin is, first off, a rocker — and we are back to “Empty Parking Lots,” a collaboration of the highest order and always a favorite at Dustin’s old Monday night shows at Momos.  Jeremy Nail (whose own brand-new record is nearly done – I can hardly wait!) lends his energy, and Suzanna Choffel her innate sultriness to a song that is to me like a rock and roll “The Road Goes on Forever” in that you just want to hear it over and over again.

“Green Badge” must come from Dustin’s Scotch Greens daze — the San Diego based band that opened for Flogging Molly and lived and died on the Warped tour.  The CD, as with many Dustin Welch live sets, closes with “Poorhouse,” which thankfully drains listeners (play this record L-O-U-D!) of all remaining energy and leaves them willing to wait for the next set of Dustin songs on disc.